SUMMER RAIN
by Donna McIntosh
Summary: Ennis and Jack both love the rain. I wonder if this is why.


TITLE: Summer Rain

AUTHOR: dmcintoshtx

RATING: R

PAIRING: Ennis & Jack

WARNING: None

Disclaimers: These characters belong to Annie Proulx, not me.

Summery: Jack and Ennis both love the rain. Maybe this is why.

SUMMER RAIN

July 1963—Brokeback Mountain

"Hey, get in here! You're gonna catch your death!" Ennis yelled

from the tent.

"I don't care. I love the rain!" Jack stood in the down-pour,

naked, arms outstretched, face up-turned, walking around their

campsite still grinning from afterglow.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Ennis chuckled and held the tent flap

open so he could watch. "What's that, some kinda rain dance?"

"Yeah, I'm crazy; crazy bout you. Why don't you shuck those jeans

and come on out? It feels great!" He whirled around as the rain

poured down over his bare body.

"You're gonna catch a cold!" Ennis warned, grinning ear to ear.

"You'd better come out here then and warm me up!" Jack reached both

arms out towards the tent and his grinning friend.

Good feelings got the better of good sense and in a minute, Ennis was

bare-naked and running out in the rain after Jack. He tackled him

and they both went down into the mud, each one laughing harder than

the other.

"I knew I could get you out here!" Jack laughed and smeared a

handful of mud down Ennis's chest. Ennis picked up a double handful

and took off after a running Jack. He caught him by the river's edge

and smeared the mud in Jack's hair.

Jack tackled him and they tumbled into the shallows, laughing and

splashing each other. Ennis grabbed Jack and drug him ashore;

rinsing the mud off both their bodies.

"OK. You got me out here. Can we go back inside now? I think we

both need a little warming up."

"I love it when you talk dirty." Jack said kissing him in the side

of his neck.

"That ain't dirty. I just need to get warm and dry." Ennis insisted

with a grin.

"Well c'mon then. I'll get you warmed up alright. Can't

promise bout the dry part." Jack grinned as they knelt down and

entered the small tent on their knees.

"Here, turn around. Let me get your back." Ennis grabbed his tee-

shirt and wiped Jack's back and shoulders. Jack took the tee-shirt

and did the same for Ennis. A little more wiping and kissing and

they were snuggling down into the bed roll.

"Jack?"

"Yeah"

"You're the best friend I ever had." Ennis said, pressing a kiss

into the damp head on his shoulder.

"You too, Ennis. I ain't never had a friend like you before. Wish we

can be best friends like this forever."

"Me too; why don't we?" Ennis asked innocently.

"People might not understand." Jack answered softly.

"Don't care bout people; just care bout you." Ennis's arms

tightened around Jack just a bit more. "Night Jack."

"Night Ennis."

"Wake me if you need anything." Ennis grinned in the dark.

"I will. You know that for a fact!"

"That I do, Jack. That I do."

Next morning there was still a sprinkle of rain left and when it was

over a beautiful rainbow blessed the sky. They stood, arms around

each other gazing at the sight.

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Ennis said in awe.

"Yes, it is. A true miracle of nature and it's our rainbow; yours

and mine. From now on, whenever you see a rainbow, it'll be me

smilin at you."

"You're crazy, Jack fuckin Twist!" Ennis laughed and held Jack

closer in his arms.

"I guess I am." Jack admitted a bit embarrassed by his sentiments.

July 1980--Childress, Texas

"Why do you keep starin out that window, Jack? You got somethin on

your mind?"

"Nah, Lureen. I was just watching the rain."

"What is it with your great infatuation with the rain? It's cold and

muddy and messes everything up!" Lureen joined him at the window.

"Just like it, is all; can't say why." Jack lowered his gaze and

came away from the window not wanting to share these special moments

with her.

"Well now, see? It's got you all blue again. Don't see what you see

in it. Just ruins any plans people try to make for outdoors." She

joined him on the couch.

"So did you have any plans for outdoors tonight?" Jack asked her,

absent-mindedly picking at some lint on the arm of the couch.

"No, but I'm sure some people did and now it's all ruined by the

rain!"

"Well, don't worry bout it then" he said wistfully glancing towards

the window and drumming his fingers on the arm rest.

"Oooohhh. I just hate this awful rain! I don't care what it does

for the Azaleas!" She left the room in a huff.

Jack returned to the window, staring out into the back yard, past the

patio and the pool but in his heart, seeing a campsite where he and

Ennis once frolicked in the mud. He grinned at the memory and made

a mental note to bring that up next month when he saw Ennis again.

July 1980—Riverton, Wyoming

"No, Ennis you cannot take the girls! I don't care if it is your

weekend. It's raining cats and dogs outside and they'd get soaked!

Come back tomorrow if it's not raining." Alma made to close the door

in his face but Junior stopped her.

"That's not fair, Momma. It's Friday night and it's our turn to see

Daddy!" Junior said, pushing the door open and going to her daddy's

side. Jenny hung back behind her momma.

"They'll be fine, Alma. A little rain won't hurt em." Ennis

assured her.

"I don't know what it is with you and rain, Ennis Del Mar, why it

makes you lose any good sense God gave you! Look at yourself. Looks

like you been out just standing in it, getting yourself soaked to the

bone!" Alma chastised him.

"Achoo, achoo!" Junior sneezed.

"Now see there; she's still not over her summer cold and you want to

take her out gallivanting in the rain?"

"Oh, Daddy. I'm sorry. I did so want to go with you tonight!"

Junior hugged him.

"It's OK, darlin. You're momma's right. I didn't know you was still

fightin that cold.

I'll just come back tomorrow and we can do something; maybe go see a

movie or take a ride in the country." He reluctantly let her go back

inside. "I'll pick you both up tomorrow, OK? That be alright?"

Jenny slipped out the door long enough to give her daddy a hug, "Oh

Daddy! You are soaked through!" She giggled and went back inside.

"See you tomorrow!" they both called to him as he walked down the

sidewalk to his truck.

"Tomorrow for sure!" he promised them.

He drove slowly back to his trailer. He took the long route, weaving

in and out all the side streets, crossing and criss-crrossing again;

making a 10 minute drive into a 45 minute one.

He loved the rain; loved the patter of it on the roof top, the splash

of it through the puddles and the smell of it. The sky really opened

up then with a deluge fit for an ark and he high-tailed it the rest

of the way home. He took his time getting out of the truck and

walking the short distance to his front door. The rain was pounding

down on him; thunder rolled, and lightening flashed. Ennis stood on

his steps and smiled up to the heavens. It was his rain; his and

Jacks and he enjoyed each and every drop of it.

He readied himself for bed and lay there listening to the rhythm of

it. It would come down hard enough to shake the trailer and then

taper off to just a patter; then a little while later it would pour

again. He lay listening to it for some time before he fell asleep

thinking about how much he loved the rain, and remembering another

July evening and rolling in the mud.

July 2003—Riverton, Wyoming

"Grandpa, wake up! It's raining! You said to wake you if it started

raining."

"So I did, young man; so I did. And I thank you for wakin me. Let's

take a look now and see." Ennis took his grandson's hand and they

walked out back on the patio of his daughter's house and sat down in

the porch swing.

"Why do you like the rain so much, Grandpa? Doesn't it scare you

sometimes? It does me." Kurt Jr. climbed up on his Grandpas lap.

"It's full of wonder, Lil One, full of hopes and dreams and

memories. It washes this old earth clean and makes everything

possible." He held his grandson close as a thunder clapped and the

boy clung to him.

"Wondrous things can happen in the rain." He smiled to himself

thinking back to a little white tent.

"Is that why God sends us a rainbow when it rains?" The small face

turned up to ask him.

"That's right, boy, that's God's way of telling us that everything is

all right with the world; and everyone in it is good and beautiful to

Him. The rainbow is God's way of smiling at us."

The boy lay his head against Ennis's chest and Ennis patted his hair;

smoothing it back.

It wasn't much of a rain really, and it stopped after a short time.

"There it is, Boy. See over there behind the garage?" He pointed to

the backside of the property where a beautiful rainbow had formed

shining its brilliant colors down on the July afternoon.

"I see it! It is beautiful, Grandpa. Is God smiling at us?"

"Yes, Boy, He is."

The boy stood up and went to the edge of the porch and stood, holding

on the railing and staring at the rainbow.

Ennis sat breathing in the rain fresh air and remembering a blue-eyed

smile that used to brighten his world so long ago. He brushed a tear

from his cheek with the back of his hand and whispered into the sweet

after-rain breeze, "Jack….I miss you. Thank you for my rainbow. I

wonder if you ever knew that you were my rainbow."

THE END


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